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Doughty Hanson, a private equity group, plans to float Saft, the French manufacturer of high-tech battery systems just 14 months after buying the company for â¬410m ($523.4m). The float could raise up to â¬800m.

An €800m price tag, values the company at ten times last year's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, La Tribune reports. Doughty plans to float the company on Euronext.

A successful offering would make Saft one of Doughty Hanson's best performing investments. A refinancing last month returned €175m to investors.

Doughty Hanson invested €120m in the portfolio company in January last year. The deal was structured with €290m of debt. Investors have already received one-and-a-half times their initial investment as a result of the refinancing.

Saft was Doughty Hanson's first French buyout and the first investment from its €1.6bn fourth buy-out fund.